Modi Gets Invite from EU Lawmakers

ByVibhuti Agarwal

As Narendra Modi’s political star rises, foreign leaders are trying to get a better feel for a man that could potentially wind up India’s next prime minister.

Mr. Modi, the charismatic but controversial chief minister of India’s western state of Gujarat, has a delicate task: build links with international diplomats and burnish his credentials as a statesman ahead of next year’s national elections, while assuaging concerns about the deadly 2002 Hindu-Muslim riots in Gujarat.

Over the weekend, Mr. Modi held an online video chat with lawmakers from Belgium, Germany, Britain and Russia, according to a blog post on Mr. Modi’s official website on Saturday.

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The blog said Mr. Modi was lauded for his development efforts in Gujarat and “making the state vibrant without a trace of corruption.” Mr. Modi spoke about various initiatives in areas such as environmental protection and renewable energy.

The foreign officials, who were in Bangalore for a meeting on corporate culture and spirituality, invited Mr. Modi to a business meeting in Brussels in November and to visit the European parliament later this year. Mr. Modi was in Gujarat and the conversation happened via Skype.

Mr. Modi, in a post on Twitter, called the interaction “delightful.” A European Union representative in India referred questions to officials in Brussels, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

An official in the Gujarat government, who did not wish to be named, said he was not sure whether Mr. Modi would attend the European parliament but “one cannot rule out the possibility if the political environment is favorable at the time.”

The online discussion came after envoys and representatives of several European Union countries met with Mr. Modi in New Delhi last month, according to a report in The Indian Express newspaper. Together, the moves show a renewed push by European leaders to build links with Mr. Modi after years of keeping him at bay.

Mr. Modi is a senior leader in the Bharatiya Janata Party, the main opposition to the ruling Congress party in New Delhi. Having been re-elected in December for a fourth term as chief minister, Mr. Modi has positioned himself as a serious contender for the prime minister’s post in the 2014 elections.

“He has a bright political future,” said Sarman V. Zala, a professor of political science at Gujarat University. “The growing acceptance (of him) by the Western nations will give a political lift to Modi.”

Other possible prime minister candidates include senior BJP leaders L.K. Advani, Arun Jaitley, and Sushma Swaraj. Unlike the U.S., in India’s parliamentary system, the party that forms a government after national elections names a prime minister. Parties don’t have to pre-determine who their prime minister might be before results are in.

Mr. Modi has been heavily criticized for failing to stop communal riots in his state in 2002 that killed over 1,000 people, most of them Muslims. Mr. Modi, who was chief minister at the time, denies wrongdoing and has rejected calls that he apologize.

During last month’s meeting with Mr. Modi in Delhi, the European diplomats raised questions about the 2002 violence to find out “what went wrong, what should have happened, what the situation is now,” EU ambassador Joao Cravinho told the Indian news channel CNN-IBN last week.

Mr. Modi reassured the diplomats that he’s made changes so that “such events could not be repeated,” Mr. Cravinho said. Mr. Cravinho did not elaborate on what those changes were.

U.K. High Commissioner James Bevan met Mr. Modi in October to talk about possible investment partnerships between Gujarat and the U.K. A week later, a U.S. official told a local TV channel that Mr. Modi could apply for a visa and the “system will take its course.” In 2005, the U.S. revoked his visa on grounds that he had violated religious freedoms.

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